Friday Morning Coffee: The Weekend Warm-Up.

Good Friday Morning, Fellow Seekers. There's one last day of quiet before the state House and Senate return to town next week to begin what is expected to be the frantic, final push on major legislation before they adjourn for the Christmas holidays.

Lawmakers are expected to return to working to get an agreement on an impact fee for Marcellus shale natural gas drillers. There's Congressional redistricting to take care of, and rumors about a final map are flying fast and furious. Also on the docket are some potential fixes to the state's Megan's Law statute. And let's not forget that the Star Chamber will take a final vote on a new map of the 253 state House and Senate districts.

So with all that in mind,let's take a quick swim through the best and the rest of this morning's headlines. They start, as always, after the bills-paying "Read More" link below.

C'mon ... click on through. All the cool kids are doing it.

The Justice Department ... ... has opened investigations at the Pittsburgh and Cresson State prisons, the Post-Gazette reports. The Pittsburgh investigation relates to an inmate abuse scandal that has resulted in criminal charges against seven guards. The probe at Cresson in Cambria County takes on problems with the treatment of mentally ill inmates, the newspaper reports.

Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser ... ...says out-of-state businesses need to start collecting sales tax on Pennsylvania purchases, Capitolwire reports this morning. In a related story, we really need to get to work on learning how to fly. The odds of both happening are about the same.

And This Would Explain Why: The state took in $1.7 billion in general fund revenue in November, which was $63.3 million, or 3.5 percent less than expected, the state Revenue Department said yesterday. Year-to-date collections are $9.4 billion, which is $345.3 million, or 3.6 percent behind projections.

Although It Was ... ...originally outside its mandate, Gov. Tom Corbett's privatization task force is refocusing on efforts to offload Pennsylvania's state-owned liquor stores, which was supposed to be on this fall's to-do list for the General Assembly, your humble blogger reports in The Big Paper today. It wasn't clear Thursday precisely what role the new advisory body, which is studded with business leaders and Corbett donors, will play in jump-starting the debate over whether the state should be in the booze business. The panel met this week for what was described as an "organizational gathering." A full meeting is not expected until early next year. "There may be some involvement on that issue [liquor privatization]," administration spokesman Gary Miller said Thursday. "It would be limited in scope. They would not get into the merits of the issue."

Embattled State Sen. Jane Orie's Attorney ... ... signed an affidavit saying the Allegheny County lawmaker provided him with the documents during her corruption trial -- including those prosecutors say were doctored, the Tribune-Review reports. Defense lawyer Bill Costopoulos introduced dozens of documents during Orie's first trial on charges she used public employees for political work. It ended in a mistrial.

For Those Of You Who Forgot ... ... an automatic pay hike for state lawmakers and other state officials took effect yesterday. The PAIndependenthas continued details.

You Say It's Your Birthday Dept. Best wishes today to our old pal Jessica VanderKolk of the Centre Daily Times. Have a great day.

Friday's Gratuitous Hockey Link. Some of the best hockey writing we've been reading lately has been coming from the new U.S. edition of The Guardian. Here's their "Five Things We Learned" feature -- an indispensable guide to quickly catching up on doings in the National Hockey League.

Ok. That's it for now. We'll be back a bit later this morning with more news and updates. See you all back here in a bit.